I got an interesting offer from a regulated online betting platform, but I am concerned about the ethics of the industry itself and worry that having something like this in my CV could hurt me in the long run with my next job(s).
Would you hire somebody who worked on gambling/betting systems? Are my concerns about the industry valid?
I did a project with a UK gambling company. I have tried to do everything in my power to expunge it from my work history as well as, more importantly, my moral history.
If you need the money, need the money, then it's up to you. But it is an industry that preys on the vulnerable.
This one also happened to be a subsidiary of a major far-right media organization, which didn’t help, but the gambling arm per se was totally disgusting.
I now know I couldn’t work on ads at any major company, too. Same kind of harmful optimization dynamic.
(Incidentally, as I was able to gather, a great deal of money in sports generally but almost all of it in esports is connected to gambling. So, there’s that)
It is. It’s like working for organised drug dealers. Or for a cryptocurrency. Hoping dumb suckers will waste their money by making poor choices.
prime example: my last company decided they wanted to become more of a "mature company" and start hiring these geniuses and got someone to lead product from FAANG. He came, did some very fancy pontification (i.e would never let anyone else speak and fill the room with his opinions). Stayed for a year (guessing he got his 25% cliff), delivered literally nothing, and moved back to FAANG to a higher position (VP) and is now probably making a solid 2MM in TC. What a sweet life. I would pay a lot of money to be a fly on the wall of those interviews and how much bs was said with what he did at my last company to get that VP job.
Every time I’ve met with ex-FAANG types in the last decade (and I’ve got dozens of anecdotes) I felt like I was talking with a Wolf of Wallstreet bro stereotype. Complete lack of humility / big ego.
The big name and big money attracts a certain personality type.
I realize full well this is broad strokes and not all are bad, but there’s a bias in the population pool.
I get the sense that they would mostly rather forget the experience.
You have a moral problem working with gambling.
Decide for yourself if that's what you want to do.
And don't care what other people say.
> and worry that having something like this in my CV could hurt me
It arguably makes your CV less neutral.
It might hurt some opportunities, it might improve some, and for a lot it won't make a difference.
Just don't do something you will personally regret or feel the need to hide.
> Would you hire somebody who worked on gambling/betting systems?
Yes.
Many years ago I asked a new colleague what he used to do before joining, and he said "Oh, I used to work for a gay porn site."
I bet that made him a better programmer, considering the high traffic.
I liked him better for his approach to honesty.
Some might have liked him less because of the porn.
Standing by your choices filters away the people who won't like you anyways.
I know many great people who work there and I think no less of them. People are allowed to make different decisions and we should respect that.
Similar, when involved in hiring decisions, it's the tech/culture fit that's important.
As stated above, it's probably more important you are comfortable with it, than anyone else. That might also involve considering your own personal situation and what other opportunities are available.
But there are also big problems in social media companies. Would they harm your CV? The dark patterns in these might be even bigger problem than in gambling. The audience is much larger.
On the CV side: no. Gambling is heavy statistical analysis, a lot of regulatory-compliance work, and no small amount of human behavior work. It's a challenging space that any competent future employer will recognize as a place where you wear a lot of hats and learn a lot of transferrable practical skills in those three mentioned spaces. Nobody who would be willing to hire a former Boeing, Raytheon, Facebook, Google, Pornhub, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, SpaceX, Tesla, Baidu, Amazon, Alibaba, Morgan Stanley, or Palantir employee is going to bat an eye on you having Fanduel or whatever on your résumé.
They care about the skills you can bring to them today, not how you got them.
On the moral side: that's the one you're going to have to decide for yourself. As other commenters have said: other people can tell you their morals, and you can collect facts about the industry, but it's your compass that'll tell you whether you can sleep okay at night working in that industry.
My father spent most of his career doing systems work for a major tobacco company. He was able to make enough money doing it to support his family extremely well. It does, sometimes, keep him up at night whether securing the future of his children was worth indirectly contributing to the premature unmaking of so many other families.
Life has not handed him an answer to that question. How much you care about your own system of ethics, how much personal integrity you choose to maintain, and how many compromises you're willing to make to trade one negative for another positive is up to you.
(It is perhaps also worth noting that no answer is set in stone. Google was seen as a savior-factory about a decade ago. I have relatives who will tell me about the Bad Old Days of computing before Microsoft reigned in the chaos by clear-cutting the massively-incompatible diversity of choice in favor of an ecosystem that worked with itself. And IBM's rise and fall from grace are industry legend. This isn't a question you ask yourself once; it's a question you'll keep asking yourself your whole career.)
My guess would be that some companies will object, but very few. Probably the same for which your religion, marital status, sexual orientation... will matter, so maybe not very desirable employers ?
It might prevent you from getting hired at certain companies. I currently work at a company focused on the challenges faced by poor families, and gambling obviously is notorious for disproportionately affecting these families. I was honest with the CEO about why I left (which was in some part due to naivety about the wider impacts the company would have). I got the job without a problem. I'd like to think he was happy for my honesty, but I won't ask him as he's currently on holiday.
Maybe some will then ask about the “gaps” in your CV. But whatever.
Undisclosed employer. July 2024 - present day
Worked on the backend for a popular online service. Work included programming in PHP and working MariaDB. Solved scalability challenges and optimized backend response times.
I have no idea how much the details of my coworker’s situation was due to the industry or the specific company circumstances, but from other rumors I’ve heard around gambling, it might be wise to do some research around other potential ramifications of being assiciated with the industry.
Also, as to your question. I’ve worked now with 3 people with who’ve worked with various gambling resume points, and I didn’t get the impression that it effected their job searches. And, for what it’s worth, they all happened to be better than average coworkers.
I don't think it will cause you grief for most jobs in most industries. That doesn't mean all. The same would go for pornography as well. Opinions, cultures and personalities vary. Not to mention regulatory norms.
I think people need to distinguish between problem betting and betting in general to be honest.
There are plenty of companies which purely bet in house like a hedge fund and don't try to suck idiots in.
It’s more important you feel comfortable with the decision. I once was in your position and decided against it as it didn’t feel ethically quite right to me, and I never regretted that decision. However if I had really needed work at the time, I’d have taken it so no judgement. It’s legal and regulated in the UK at least.
Like for example, if I worked at P0rnhub as a web developer if that would be a huge issue if I wanted to switch jobs later? Not in the adult sector.
I probably would not tell my family that’s for sure.
...And yet it feels icky every time I see it on a resume.
Who you are and whether you can do the job, matters more. If you’re sleazy, I probably wouldn’t hire you, but that is a personality trait rather than your employment history.
I have a unique unpronounceable first name. I got passed over for interviews all the time. I took it as “if they’re that type of person, I wouldn’t want to work for them anyway.”
I think similar applies here.